The Features You Need From a CRM for Financial Services
Financial organizations have their unique requirements and often rely on frequent communication with their clients.
Having the features that enable clearer, faster interactions is a top priority.
Besides that, a CRM for financial services should focus on meeting the needs of both the business and clients, with extra attention to security and building client relationships.
Scheduling/Reminders
- Automatic scheduling — Never forget another quarterly call. Automatically schedule follow-ups at specific times — like tax season or after earnings reports.
- Event-based scheduling — Scheduling based on customer actions, like a call the day after they revisit the product page of your website.
- Reminders integrations — Reminders that sync with your preferred calendar or email app, so even if you aren’t in your CRM ecosystem, you don’t miss an important meeting.
Email Marketing
- Customizable email marketing — You can benefit from a drag and drop editor to articulate your message with your branding without coding experience.
- List segmentation — Divide your customers into lists to target different audiences for different products. This saves hours of manual work. You want to send mortgage rates instead of investment information to clients interested in real estate.
- Email Analytics — Analytics and A/B testing to track campaign performance and click-through rates (CTRs). See which campaigns your customers respond to and which of your tactics convert.
Sales Management Platform
- Real-time reports — Access to various reports on individual sales performance, deal forecasting, sales funnel reports, and more in real-time.
- Internal communication — Schedule coaching sessions with the whole team or one-on-one. Communicate and collaborate with your customer reps online to connect with them, even if your team has gone remote.
Sales Pipeline Cultivation
- Defined sales process — Move leads down the customer journey pipeline, from their first website visit to a follow-up phone call timed to convert at best possible time.
- Centralized tracking — Every customer rep should be able to access all previous interactions with a customer, thus reducing repetition and improving the customer experience.
Automation
- Data Integration — Automatically update information from different platforms. If you receive a new email address through messenger, you shouldn’t need to type it in across multiple programs.
- Account-based scheduling — Schedule emails, phone calls, and more at the best time to convert. Your CRM should know which time zone your client is in, when they are active on your website, and when they’ve converted in the past to help you decide the best time to reach out.
- Event-based automation — Automate processes based on actions, responses, and times. If a client informs you that they are looking to invest for retirement, this should trigger a different campaign than a checking account customer.
Flexibility
- Integration with existing apps — Your CRM should work with your existing email newsletter builder, social media accounts, and website builder.
Your CRM should get along with your existing system and not force a complete overhaul. Choose a CRM for financial services that integrates with other apps.
- Branding — Your CRM should help you incorporate your branding into customizable emails, landing pages, and more. Use a CRM that makes you appear professional.
- Portability — Your CRM should be accessible from anywhere. A secure cloud-based system can empower you to share sensitive data whether you are on a desktop or mobile.
Customer Service Support
- Help Desk — A ticketing system to let you help customers by order and priority.
- 24/7 Support — Chatbots and live chat help you automate frequent customer service issues and let smaller businesses offer flexible customer service hours.
- In-sync with sales and marketing — Every customer-facing person should be on the same page. Customer support should know which products a particular client uses, who they spoke, and what issues they encountered.
Get started with HubSpot for free. We offer both forever-free plans and premium services for businesses with more complex needs.
Check out our free CRM or schedule a meeting with one of our representatives to learn the perfect solution for your business.
How CRM fits into growth
CRMs make life easier, but seeing their impact on your business is also important. CRMs have significantly affected companies' growth in the past few years, and their popularity continues to rise.
65% of sales organizations use a CRM in 2020, compared to 59% in 2018 (Salesforce, 2020). The reasons they chose to use a CRM vary, but top responses included automating tasks like scheduling meetings, content delivery, and contract generation.
Many companies have stated they use their CRM software to improve retention. 82% of the respondents in a 2021 survey said "Active customer retention" is one of the most important objectives for their CRM team (Tinyclues, 2021).
The integration is paying off as well. 61% of overperforming leaders report using a CRM to automate at least part of their sales process compared to 46% of underperforming leaders.
CRM systems like HubSpot CRM solve the many challenges presented by growth. CRMs effectively deal with contact management, company, and sales opportunity information.
They also help consolidate interactions through different communication channels, including your website, email, phone calls, and social media.
It’s more critical than ever for marketing and sales teams to function as a cohesive unit, and CRM systems are the perfect solution to help scaling organizations achieve that goal.
CRMs help lead to a better customer experience, communicating more effectively with your organization.
Perhaps most importantly, modern CRM solutions support the complex workflows of fast-growing sales teams. CRM systems keep your team in sync, facilitate more effective use of time and eliminate many of the mindless tasks that take up time without adding value.